Brian Parkinson's Guide to Unique Wildlife of New Zealand

King Country | Pirongia Forest Park | Kawhia | Waitomo Caves | New Plymouth | Mt Taranaki

further 23 kilometres along State Highway 31 from the Pirongia turn-off brings you to Kawhia Harbour.

This harbour is one of the most important feeding and roosting grounds for wading birds, and here in July 1954, 14 pure black stilts were seen, a North Island record. A large sand island in the middle of the lower part of the harbour is a popular roosting area for godwits. It is also the southernmost point on the west coast of New Zealand where pohutukawa naturally grow, although I have heard rumours that there is a small colony somewhere near New Plymouth in Taranaki.

Kawhia Harbour is well known among palaeontologists for its large number of fossils, first found in this area by the German geologist-explorer Dr Ernst Dieffenbach in 1842. Ammonites and belemnites are particularly plentiful here and the largest ammonite found in New Zealand, a 1.52-metre specimen from late Jurassic rocks, was recovered south of the harbour. Although not the largest known, this specimen is still a respectable size.

The belemnites were so common here that Maori children used them as toys believing they were rokekanae, or the excrement of mullet which the fish had left behind on the shore after leaping out of the water.